Mirza impresses with 2nd Stage win
Pacing himself with near-perfection, overnight leader Azzedine Lagab of Algeria on Friday retained his position at the Tour of Zubarah as UAE’s Yusif Mirza clinched stage two. Lagab, who won the first stage on Thursday, finished stage two in fourth spot to keep his title hopes alive. Team Giant rider Mirza ended the stage with […]
Pacing himself with near-perfection, overnight leader Azzedine Lagab of Algeria on Friday retained his position at the Tour of Zubarah as UAE’s Yusif Mirza clinched stage two.
Lagab, who won the first stage on Thursday, finished stage two in fourth spot to keep his title hopes alive.
Team Giant rider Mirza ended the stage with a time of 2 hours 45 minutes 22 seconds to jump to 10th in the overall general classification. The 26-year-old UAE rider now owns the white jersey.
Stage two started and ended at Madinat Al Shamal after the riders completed a distance of 116.8kms.
Austria’s Martin Weiss, who featured at last year’s Tour of Zubarah, finished in second spot on Friday while David Per of Adria Mobil was placed in third spot.
Lagab ended Friday’s stage two a spot above fifth-placed Mario Schoibl of Austria.
Kristjan Fajt of Adria Mobil was sixth while TKT Racing Cycles rider Gabor Kasa stunned fans with a seventh-place finish.
Nabojsa Jovanovic (TKT), Wauter Sybrandy (SIG) and Primoz Roglic (Adria Mobil) rounded off the top-10 riders in stage two.
Lagab (5:35.51) now enjoys a 19-second lead over second-placed Fajt in the overall general classification.Weiss, who finished second at last year’s Tour of Zubarah, is in third place, 30 seconds adrift of Lagab.Per (32 seconds) is in fourth spot while Schoibl (34 seconds) is in sixth spot.
Sybrandy (43 seconds), Roman Van Uden (1:47), Radoslav Rogina (2:00), Abdenour Yahmi (2:01) and Mirza (2:03) complete the top-10 riders in the general classification.
Today the riders will kick off the proceedings from Lekhwiya Sports Club and end at Zubarah Fort in the north of the country.
The Zubarah Fort, also known as Fort Zubara, is a historic Qatari military fortress built under the oversight of Sheikh Abdullah bin Qassim Al Thani in 1938.
The event is sponsored by Aspire Zone and Qatar Museums. More than 90 riders are featuring in the four-day event.
This is the second edition of Tour of Zubarah. Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF) is hosting the event.
